The History of the Cloud 9 as told by Dave Carpenter © 2004 Dave Carpenter~ All Rights Reserved People have been asking about the history of the Cloud Nine series, Gibson Chambered Reissue Les Paul guitars. Some people think that I, Dave Carpenter of Music Machine invented them. I did not invent them, but I did start slowly problem solving towards them some time ago. The real inventors are the geniuses at Gibson Custom Art and Historic. Music Machine just became the vehicle that would allow the Cloud Nine series Les Pauls to happen. For the origin, let’s start by looking way back to Gibson’s dark era, the 70’s. Yikes! Sorry, that is too chilling; let’s move up to look at Gibson in the 80’s. In the early 80’s, Gibson had continued their reprehensible practices from the 70’s. The owners had made many terrible decisions and changes. Changes for the worse included: Gibson’s wood sourcing, degradation in design/builds of Gibson’s historically great models, and the location of Gibson’s main manufacturing plant. These changes were all in an attempt to profit from 80 years (minus ten, the Seventies) of the good name of Gibson, instead of trying to build a great product. They cut corners, much to the dismay of Gibson fans everywhere and of course, to those of us working at Music Machine. Music Machine, (a continuous Gibson dealer for 27 years) were custom ordering 1959 reissue type product all the way back in the early 80’s. We had many customers that wanted new guitars from Gibson, built as close to the quality of the 50’s Gibson guitars as possible. Customers really wanted a new Gibson Les Paul of quality. These Les Paul guitars were the best of their day, (owing much to the efforts of Jimmy Wallace who would get in his car and drive to Kalamazoo with an original 1959 Les Paul or two) but they were certainly lacking compared to today’s Gibson products as envisioned by Edwin Wilson. Norlin, the owner of Gibson in the 70’s and 80’s, had given up on the guitar business and decided to sell. A sale of Gibson took place in the middle 80’s and things started to turn around immediately. Somewhere in the late 80’s Edwin Wilson, a true guitar building wizard and guitar building hero, decides to go to work for Gibson in Nashville, Tennessee. This is truly an important event for Music Machine and all of us who love Gibson guitars, especially the old ones. In the 90’s, Edwin Wilson and fellow artisan Tom Murphy began the long journey of building the Gibson Historic Models. They showed their passion for the Les Paul models, Flying V models including the Korina Flying V, Korina Explorer, Korina Futura, SG Les Paul, Firebird and more. I feel that the Gibson Custom Art and Historic Shop was born on the backs of these two luthier’s and their relentless efforts. Their early efforts gave Gibson renewed credibility, that was lost during the Norlin years. Certainly all Gibson Historic solid body model guitars will trace back to their efforts. Guitar show attendees have told me stories of Edwin Wilson and Tom Murphy showing up at many of the large guitar shows with a van packed with their latest Historic Gibson product. The excitement about these new Gibson Historic guitars that Edwin Wilson and Tom Murphy were building was at times overwhelming. At the Japanese guitar shows, Tom Murphy and Edwin Wilson were sometimes cheered and treated somewhat like Rock Stars for their attempts to bring the glory back to Gibson. On the west coast there was a small guitar company building some of the best custom guitars for many of the top Los Angeles session players and many superstar guitarist of the day. The company’s name was Valley Arts. Owned by Mike McGuire and Al Carness, it was a hot spot for guys like Steve Lukather and Larry Carlton, to name a few. Unfortunately for them, (but as you will see, fortunate for us Gibson fans) the Valley Arts manufacturing plant burned beyond their insurance policies coverage. Valley Arts could not be put back together in the same way again. Through a few twists and turns, both Mike McGuires’ and Al Carness’ journeys led them to work at Gibson and take over important roles. Mike McGuire becomes the plant manager at Gibson Custom Art and Historic. On a side note, if you have wondered who does the incredible finishing work at the Custom Shop, Mike McGuire brought his son Mickey McGuire with him to Gibson. He is the artist in the finishing booth. What eventually becomes Gibson Custom Art and Historic, transitions from humble beginnings, a couple of Costco tables in the corner of shipping and receiving manned only by Edwin Wilson and Tom Murphy, through some variations and into their own building with Mike McGuire as plant manager about eleven years ago. Edwin Wilson, true to his passions, has the title Historic program director. The new Gibson Historic Reissue guitars from Custom Art and Historic, (when other Gibson divisions use the moniker reissue, it is not the same) are built in Edwin Wilson’s vision. Whenever I have seen Edwin Wilson at the factory he is always busy building guitars. Edwin spends about two weeks of every month acquiring the finest tone woods for the entire Gibson Custom Art and Historic division. Mike McGuire wears many hats also and when I have visited him at the factory, I have seen him working on guitars for some of our cultures guitar heroes. Both of these talented luthiers are hands on type people. They lead through example. Though they are directors and plant managers etc., they get saw dust on themselves everyday. They are true seekers of excellence and problem solvers. Enter Rick Gembar to Gibson Custom Art and Historic. Rick Gembar is the head of the division. A very smart analytical person, I always see him reading when he is not engaged. He has always been very nice to me, but I am told he is a real bulldog type person, relentless in his pursuit of excellence and a guy that just gets it done. I believe Rick Gembar knows and understands the extreme talents and passion of the people that he leads at Custom Art and Historic. He knows how to keep them motivated. He has found out exactly what Edwin Wilson and Mike McGuire need, how important each need was, built a comprehensive chart or system and went to Gibson corporate offices and convinced the decision makers to invest heavily. From my observations, he has successfully and in an orderly manner realized these visions and dreams. By 2003 only ten years of Gibson Custom Art and Historic in its own building, Edwin and Mike now have everything to build what many people think is maybe the best Gibson guitars ever built. The Gibson Custom Shop buys and sources their own woods; they build their own necks, bodies, fingerboards etc. They have their own machines, so Mike and Edwin can control the smallest of details. An example of Rick Gembar’s importance is the 2003 potentiometers for Historic Les Paul guitars. The manufacture for the potentiometers needed half a million dollars from Gibson to retool to make the proper potentiometer that Edwin envisioned for his Gibson Historic Les Pauls. In 2002 Rick Gembar, went and got the approval to spend half a million dollars just to retool this outside manufacture’s factory, to make a part the consumer never even looks at for the 2003 product. The half a million dollars was just to retool, they still had to buy each potentiometer. The previous potentiometer used, had been working to turn down the volume, in the Historic Les Paul and it adjusted the tone in the Historic Les Paul, however it just wasn’t close enough to the original for Edwin Wilson. Rick Gembar believed in Edwin’s vision and made it happen. Another example, in 2002 Rick Gembar got Gibson corporate to see the advantage in spending almost four hundred thousand to retool the capacitor manufactures facility to make the proper capacitor for the Historic Les Paul. Another part the consumer can’t see, 99% don’t even know that it was a need, but Rick Gembar believed in Edwin and made it happen. I bring up these to examples, because most large capital investments go towards exciting the consumer visually. These examples, and there are more, show me the level of understanding that Rick Gembar has, and how his stewardship of Custom Art and Historic is so important. Rick has been able to keep these extremely talented individuals for all of these years at Gibson, a major accomplishment in my book. I can only imagine their value at Gibson’s competitors. I believe he leads as other great leaders lead, by making it about Edwin and Mike and not about him. I have read to many times how department managers, division leaders and company leaders send many of their companies down the river by looking to make their short term profits look good and not investing in the future. Rick Gembar appears to be looking out for his division and Gibson the company for the long term. Once Music Machine was finally and properly introduced to the leaders at the new Gibson Custom Shop, Music Machine started taking advantage of their talents. Consumers emailed Music Machine and said things like, “I love what the Gibson Custom Shop is doing but I would like this finish instead” or , “I love what the Gibson Custom Shop is doing but I would like this neck size instead” Music Machine didn’t throw these ideas away.